Investigation Hub and Discovery Hub at Deckham

After another busy week, it has been lovely to see just how settled the children are becoming within the Nursery environment. We have been amazed by their growing confidence and, in particular, the wonderful ideas they are beginning to bring to their play across the different areas of provision.

This week, we have continued to develop our Plan, Do, Review approach. Straight after Welcome Time, the children are encouraged to think about where they would like to play and what they might do when they get there. Using objects of reference from our special planning bag helps them to think about the different areas available and communicate their choices through words, actions or gestures.

We have been so impressed by how enthusiastically the children have shared their plans. We are already hearing some really thoughtful ideas – not only where they would like to play, but what they are going to do there and, for some children, the resources they might need. This is a lovely way of supporting children to make choices, develop their own ideas and become increasingly independent in their learning.

Our core text this week has been We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and it has been a huge hit! The children have thoroughly enjoyed joining in with the familiar repeated phrases and actions as we journey through the grass, river, mud, forest and snowstorm in search of the bear.

We have also used the story to develop our mathematical language, with a particular focus on positional language. Using a bear, chair and box, the children explored words such as in, on, under, behind, in front of and next to. We were incredibly impressed by their existing knowledge and how quickly they began applying this vocabulary themselves. Some children even became the teacher, confidently giving their friends positional instructions to follow!

The mud kitchen has been particularly popular this week. The children have enjoyed experimenting with different resources and coloured water, as well as exploring our garden to collect natural materials to stock up the mud kitchen.

This sparked some wonderful conversations about the changing season as the children noticed the leaves beginning to change. Autumn is certainly upon us! There was lots of spontaneous mathematical thinking too, as children compared and sorted what they had collected, using language such as “This stick is bigger,” “This one is small,” and “I have lots of green leaves!” It is wonderful to see how much learning develops naturally from the children’s own interests and discoveries.

Bensham Grove seems to have its very own choir! This week, our older children in the Investigation Hub gave a very special performance of our Song of the Week, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, for their younger friends in the Discovery Hub. The singing was beautiful, and it was lovely to see everyone joining in together. Our Investigation Hub children were so proud to perform for an audience – a wonderful shared Nursery moment!

Core Text: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Song of the Week: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Sign of the Week: Sit